There is a new bee out in the garden, and he is a “monster.” This male Wool Carder bee will mate with any female and chase away any male that comes into his territory.
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TRANSCRIPT
- [Narrator] There's a new bee out.
It's a wool carder bee.
The male is a monster, and you can see the female's half his size.
(wings flapping) This male owns all of these flowers.
He'll chase anything that comes into this territory.
(bee buzzing) Bees like this bumblebee are in trouble if one of these guys is around.
(wings flapping) On his rear end, he's got some really quite vicious-looking spikes, which can inflict serious damage to his enemies.
(bee buzzing) It's a bit like a lion, in the sense that he mates with the females whenever he can, he attacks anything that moves in his territory, and in particular, when he meets a male of his own species, there is trouble.
He meets the other male and the two of them size each other up.
(wings flapping) He tries to stab him with his spikes.
The interloper's driven off.
The only welcome bee in this territory is a female.
The male mates with the same female three or four times in a row, before they seem to get a sense that they've both done this and they don't need to do it anymore.
It does appear as if the male can actually recognize which females he's mated with.
He just kind of flies up, has a look and then flies off.
